Between integrative utopias and transgressive utopias: Foucault versus Marcuse

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36517/arf.v17i1.95847

Keywords:

Sexuality. Repression. Utopia. Transgression.

Abstract

This article aims to provide an initial explanation of Foucault’s critique of Marcuse’s theses regarding the relationship between capitalism and sexual repression. To this end, we seek to reconstruct the genesis of this critique, especially those that appear in the first volume of the History of Sexuality, from 1976, and which have been widely commented on. This genesis takes us back to the course that Foucault taught in Vincennes in the first half of 1969 and that was only published in France in 2018 and in Brazil in 2021. In this course, among other topics, Foucault critically discusses the idea of a “sexual utopia” concomitant with the end of capitalism and, at the same time, refutes Marcuse’s position regarding the concept of perversion. According to Foucault, such a position would end up distorting the Freudian concept of “perversion” in favor of the idea of a healthy and normalized sexuality. From this perspective, the sexual utopia that emerged in the 1960s and reached its maximum expression in the May 1968 movement would be nothing more than a conciliatory utopia, which abandons all idea of transgression.

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Author Biography

Ernani Chaves, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA)

Professor Titular da Faculdade de Filosofia da Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA). Doutor em Filosofia pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Professor Permanente dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia e em Psicologia da Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA). Autor de Foucault e a Psicanálise (1988) e Michel Foucault e a verdade cínica (2013). Membro da Red Ibero-Americana de Estudíos Foucaultianos, sediada na Universidade Complutense de Madri.

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Published

2025-07-31 — Updated on 2025-10-03

How to Cite

Chaves, E. (2025). Between integrative utopias and transgressive utopias: Foucault versus Marcuse. Argumentos - Revista De Filosofia, 17(1), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.36517/arf.v17i1.95847

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Dossiê Foucault: vidas infames e insubmissas

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Copyright (c) 2025 Ernani Chaves

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